Hedge funds are bigger than ever, topping $2 trillion in assets for the first time, according to one industry-watcher.

Hedge Fund Research said today that $102 billion in net inflows and performance gains in the first quarter pushed total industry assets to $2.02 trillion. The number handily exceeds the previous all-time high, set at $1.93 trillion in the second quarter of 2008, just before the financial crisis sent hedge funds into a downward spiral.

Less than one-third of the total increase in assets—$32 billion—came in the form of inflows. But that inflow was still the largest since the end of 2007, according to HFR.

The figures show "that the hedge fund industry has completed its recovery from the financial crisis," HFR President Kenneth Heinz said. At the depths of the crisis, in the first quarter of 2009, hedge funds managed just $1.33 trillion.

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